Arab conquest of Egypt

In the years following Muhammad's death, Arab armies of the Rashidun Caliphate led by Amr ibn al-As entered Egypt, then a province of the Byzantine Empire. After winning a battle at Heliopolis and a siege of the fortress of Babylon near present-day Cairo, the Muslims took Alexandria, the country's chief port and cultural centre, and the Byzantines withdrew by sea. Local Coptic Christians had resented Byzantine religious and tax policies, which may have eased the Muslim advance, though how far is debated by historians. Amr founded a military camp city called Fustat, which became the first Arab capital of Egypt and later part of Cairo. Egypt then provided much of the grain and wealth of the early caliphate.

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